Tulsa Wins 2008 GMAC Bowl, 63-7
Golden Hurricane Storms Past Bowling Green with record-setting Show
Quarterback Paul Smith and running back Tarrion Adams lead the way in rewritting NCAA history and completing Coach Todd Graham's first season with a runaway victory
Record-setting Tulsa stormed past Bowling Green, 63-7, to win the 2008 GMAC Bowl.
Quarterback Paul Smith enjoyed his NCAA-record 14th consecutive 300-yard passing game, and he and running back Tarrion Adams became only to second pair of teammates to pass for 5,000 yards and rush for 1,000 yards in the same season.
The Golden Hurricane also became the first team in NCAA history to have a 5,000-yard passer, a 1,000-yard rusher and three 1,000-yard receivers in the same season.
As if all that weren‘t enough, Bowling Green lost four first-half fumbles that Tulsa turned into touchdowns. In so doing, Tulsa (10-4) won 10 games for just the sixth time in its 108-year history. Bowling Green fell to 8-5.
Smith finished with 312 yards passing and five touchdowns to break the a first-place tie with Brigham Young’s Ty Detmer, who had produced 13th consecutive 300-yard passing games over the course of the 1989-90 seasons. Smith also rushed for a score.
For the season, Smith threw for 5,065 yards, while Adams rushed for 1,225 yards. Smith was named the game’s Most Valuable Player and Adams the Offensive Player of the Game.
Topping 1,000 yards receiving for the season were Brennan Marion (1,244 yards), Trae Johnson (1,088) and Charles Clay (1,024).
Smith and Adams made NCAA history with the most single-season combined yards passing and rushing at 6,290. Houston’s David Klinger and Chuck Weatherspoon amassed 6,237 yards in 1990 as the only other tandem with 5,000 yards passing and 1,000 rushing in the same year.
Adams rushed for a 1-yard touchdown, caught a 19-yard scoring passing and threw a 4-yard touchdown pass to Kyle Grooms. Tulsa scored its final touchdown on Smith‘s 6-yard pass to A.J. Whitmore with 3:22 to play. Whitmore also had a 19-yard touchdown run in the first quarter.
Tulsa completed Coach Todd Graham’s first season with its first 10-win campaign since 1991. It did so with its most post in a bowl game ever, far surpassing its previous best of 31.
In snapping Bowling Green’s four-bowl winning streak, Tulsa thwarted two first-half threats when it recovered a fumble inside its 10-yard line and stopped a fourth-down play in the same area.
Tulsa set 11 school bowl records, with Smith accounting for four of them -- most completions (27), yards passing (312), touchdown passes (five) and touchdown accountability (six).
Graham became only the third coach in school history to lead Tulsa to a bowl game in his first season. He joined Henry Frnka as the only first-year coach to win a bowl game. Frnka’s first club took the 1942 Sun Bowl.
